


pardoning the rain

by Piehead



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Comfort No Hurt, Domestic Fluff, Everyone is Trans, Fluff, Gender Dysphoria, Implied Sexual Content, Kent Goes To Samwell, Multi, Nonbinary Character, Other, Slice of Life, Trans Character, Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character, a bunch of them are nb actually, everyone is dating everyone - Freeform, gender is fake anyway, nothing outright, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-04 23:32:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16799236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piehead/pseuds/Piehead
Summary: There’s a cycle to it. Precipitation, evaporation, condensation. Precipitation again. It doesn’t rain every day. Some days the rain is harsh. Some days it’s never ending.Some days, the sun greets the world after, like a lover coming home again.Theirs is a rainy day. But their sun always manages to shine through. You can only see a rainbow when it’s raining anyhow.





	pardoning the rain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [believesinponds](https://archiveofourown.org/users/believesinponds/gifts).



> Gender is fake and everyone is dating everyone!!!!!!! Don’t even look at me if you think this is unrealistic. TransPolyhaus for _life_ son.
> 
> Anyhow, this is for the best metamour I could ever ask for; I hope you enjoy it!! And I really hope it’s what you wanted, I’m very bad at sticking to prompts haha. Did my best just for you.

On a good day Jack wakes up and doesn’t mind that his closet is mostly “men’s” clothing; dark shirts made for broad shoulders and long pants meant to be situated a certain way on his hips, with or without an accompanying belt. Those days are okay, because he doesn’t see an issue with his wardrobe, doesn’t need to see it rearranged again and again, doesn’t mind presenting as he did when he thought he was a boy.

He isn’t sure if it’s a good day until he gets ready to climb out of bed usually, but there are some mornings when he comes back to consciousness and knows it’s  _ not _ . Those aren’t great mornings to start with, because those are the mornings when it’s hard to be “Jack,” especially if “Jack” has to deal with anyone that’s expecting a boy in masculine clothing. Honestly, those mornings don’t really start until…

“Hey, baby.”

They don’t start until Kenny’s there, letting them snuggle down into his chest, kissing the top of their head, reminding them that they don’t  _ have  _ to be “Jack.” Those are the mornings when they’re Jackie, because “Jack” is too harsh on the tongue, too final for them. Jackie is softer, somehow, maybe because of the way Kenny says it, with a curl around the name like he’s holding it just as close as he holds them.

“Morning, Kenny,” Jackie sighs, their nose pressed into Kenny’s neck, inhaling to take in the smell of him and then exhaling with a long sigh. Kenny rubs a hand over their back, reminding them that he’s there, and that he doesn’t plan to go anywhere if they don’t want him to. And they don’t particularly want him to.

“Gotta get breakfast,” Kenny says, just as a knock on their door sounds. Jackie makes a noise in the back of their throat that would definitely translate to “no” if it were put into words. Kenny smiles into their hair, but calls to whoever’s outside their door with, “We’re coming!”

“We could be,” Jackie murmurs, low, pressing a kiss to Kenny’s collar. Kenny snorts and turns them over so that he’s on top of Jackie, hands pushing down towards the waistband of Jackie’s pants.

“We could…” His fingers are magic, and Jackie closes their eyes, a softer noise bubbling up from them. Kenny gets close to touching them, but then pulls away.

“Or, we could go down to breakfast, and I could find you something to wear so you don’t have to look into the closet.” He plants a kiss on Jackie’s nose, grinning like the tease he is, and Jackie definitely doesn’t pout, no matter what Kenny will say.

“Fine,” they concede, sitting up to meet Kenny for a kiss. It’s soft and it’s chaste, just an affirmation of love more than anything else, really, but Jackie savors it.

They’re wearing one of Holster’s shirts (and maybe that should have been their first clue, last night, that today was gonna be rougher on their perceptions of themself) and a pair of shorts that probably belonged to Shitty (they’re tighter around their waist then what they’re used to, honestly, which is pleasant). Jackie gets out of bed and heads towards the door, resolutely keeping their eyes away from the closet, where they would be able to see all the dark hues of masculine clothing, and not the brighter blues and soft purples of something more neutral.

~_/*\\_~

They step outside of the room while Kenny heads to the bathroom, and goes towards the stairs with plans to use the bathroom on the first floor. It’s usually less crowded than either second floor bathroom, and if Jackie is right about the time then Shitty is in the shared bathroom between hers and Jackie’s room and Ransom and Holster are using the other one. Which means Jackie can go downstairs.

They pass by the kitchen, headed towards the bathroom, and spy Bitty making pancakes with Nursey and Chowder sitting at the table. Dex is nowhere to be seen currently, though he’s usually found with the other two. Jackie thinks he might be hidden away in the basement, still trying to figure out what was going on with the dryer. It hasn’t dried anything properly in  _ days _ and no one can figure out why.

Jackie uses the bathroom and then walks back toward the kitchen, a yawn bubbling up from their throat as they pass kisses around to all. Chowder smiles at them, mumbling something against their lips about how long their hair has gotten, and Nursey cosigns with a mention of braiding it if they’re up for it later. Bitty is the most animated, planting a kiss on Jackie’s lips and gesturing around at various things, from the stack of pancakes to the fridge (there’s a new carton of orange juice) to the oven (Kenny would be glad for the cinnamon rolls) to the doorway—

There’s Shitty, in all her glory, looking beautifully groomed and still so tired.

“Dude,  _ fuck _ Harvard and all the bullshit they’re trying to put me through,” she groaned, wrapping her arms around Jackie’s neck and slumping against them. “I hate this shit. I was up until almost  _ three _ going over cases.”

“You’re the best student they’ve got right now,” Jackie says, pushing their face into Shitty’s hair and inhaling. They like that Shitty’s been growing it out too; she had hated getting the chop back in Senior year but now she was letting it do its thing again, and Jackie didn’t feel alone or so self conscious with Shitty growing hers out again too.

“They can get fucked,” Shitty decided, looking up at Jackie with an expression that indicated just how much Shitty cared about the uppity old white men. The look was greeted with a kiss and a chuckle, and Nursey chiming in from the background.

“You  _ know  _ they’re gonna miss you when you leave,” Nursey teased, smiling over a glass of milk.

Shitty squints at Nursey and then says, “Aren’t you lactose intolerant?”

Nursey responds with downing the entire glass in one go, and Chowder has to look off to the side to avoid laughing too hard. Shitty feels like she should be offended but she can’t help laughing too. Bitty says something about Nursey having better have taken some lactaid pills that morning and Jackie feels like there’s something… right in their world for the moment.

“I’m gonna go get dressed,” they say, quiet, but loud enough that the others hear them. They feel… warm inside, and they want to share that with Kenny for the moment.

“Tell Kent if he isn’t down before Ransom and Holster I’m giving them all of the cinnamon rolls,” Bitty threw over his shoulder. Jackie’s sure it’s a threat simply meant to spur Kenny into action, but they also know it’s fairly empty.

~_/*\\_~

As they’re padding back up to their room, they can’t help thinking about the first few weeks of trying to figure out whatever…  _ this _ was. It felt domestic, like a way of living that was too good and sweet, like everything was fine even on the days when it wasn’t. And things hadn’t even always been this way, even if Jackie couldn’t see them being any different ever.

Seeing Kenny fully dressed in casual attire for the day, hair pushed back from his face, going through their pile of textbooks was a sight Jackie never wanted to give up.

“Hey, Princess,” Kenny says when he notices Jackie standing in the doorway, and they scrunch their nose up a bit at the nickname. It’s cute, but Jackie doesn’t entirely know if it  _ fits _ today. Kenny notices the look in their eyes and frowns a little, but comes over to take their hand and pull them towards the bed. Jackie has never been good at articulating when they need to, especially when it involves their own needs. Some days it’s easier to leave the words out of it, but a lot of days it’s better if they don’t.

“Bits said he’ll give all the cinnamon rolls to Ransom and Holster if you’re not down for breakfast soon,” they say, relaying the message they were given. “But I think he just wants to make sure you eat. Since you skipped dinner last night.”

Kenny rolls his eyes but the action is mostly fond. Bitty worries in the only ways he knows how a lot of times, through food and actions. Kenny’s mostly fine these days with it but there are times when he can’t handle Bitty’s brand of care. This isn’t one of those times, thankfully.

“I’m gonna head down and get breakfast then. You gonna get dressed?”

Jackie glances at the outfit Kenny’s picked for them for the day. It’s pretty neutral, they think, the tight fitting jeans completely meant to show off their ass (Kenny knows they need a confidence boost sometimes) and a crop top, one of Shitty’s maybe? Jackie isn’t sure where it came from but it’s pretty and looks like it used to be something an Aces fan would wear— if she were going to an afterparty. They like it a lot more than they care to admit.

“Yeah,” they say, still feeling good. They like when the momentum for it has built up, when they feel nice and they get to  _ keep _ feeling nice. Kenny kisses them, arms wrapping around their waist and the two of them swaying just a bit to a beat that might just be their hearts. Jackie returns it and wraps their own arms around Kenny’s shoulders, sighing a bit. Kenny knows them better than anyone. Even theirself, a lot of days. They’re glad to have him.

Kenny pulls away from the kiss he initiated when they hear footsteps padding past their room. Ransom or Holster, probably, or maybe Lardo is finally awake. Jackie hopes it’s Lardo; they think a little eyeliner and blush will help with the less than pleasant feelings still lingering in the back of their mind.

“I’ll meet you downstairs. We’ve still gotta go over those photos from the other day and I think Nursey wants to see what we had going too,” Kenny says. Jackie gives him a nod and watches him leave the room, the door left ajar enough for the sounds of his entrance to the kitchen to be heard. Jackie really does love that all the people they’ve met through college has loved Kenny as fiercely as they have.

~_/*\\_~

They’re dressed in minutes and pulled on a pair of the cat socks Kenny keeps buying (because he knows he’s not the only person that wears them, especially after having spied Ransom with a pair on a couple months back). When they leave their bedroom, they’re just in time to see Ransom, Holster, March, and April leave the attic. They hasn’t seen the girls in a while, since the two were in Europe for a month, finalizing whatever research they needed for their thesis.

Ransom and Holster both stop off to give Jackie kisses, while March and April pass smiles and hugs (even though Jackie is at least a little certain March is the one that gets in a decent ass grope, but they aren’t as startled by the touch as they thought they would be). Ransom looks tired, like he’s been up for a while, but Holster looks pleased, like they had gotten  _ exactly _ what they wanted. Jackie doesn’t really need to asks; the fine jar was gonna be full after someone spied all of Holster’s hickies.

“Busy night?” Jackie asks, feeling a little bold. They can’t stop smiling, feeling so utterly  _ glad _ that two of their many lovers gets to enjoy having their own partners back too.

“You could say that,” Ransom winks, because even if he’s tired, it’s obvious he’s enjoyed himself, too.

“Lards came down first,” Holster says, before having to stifle a yawn. They stretch a bit, and Jackie can already spy four, five, six different hickies and sets of teeth. A  _ very _ busy night, then.

“Five of you slept up there last night? Without any of us noticing?” Jackie leads the way down the stairs, a hand coming up to push their hair back from their face. Maybe they do need to let Nursey braid it today.

April makes a snorting sound that lets Jackie infer meaning, and feels a bit of a blush start trailing up their neck. The heat causes that stirring they felt that morning again, when Kenny was in bed with them and teasing. They don’t have time to be horny, though.

“We were pretty quiet,” March affirms, and that’s enough to tell Jackie that they probably  _ weren’t _ , but managed without waking anyone up anyway.

They reach the kitchen and Bitty looks a bit scandalized to see March and April, but not for the reason anyone on the outside looking in would think.

“Y’all didn’t tell me I’d have a full haus to feed this morning!” he huffs. Kenny is sitting at the table with Lardo, Shitty, and Dex. Dex has Shitty in his lap, keeping his face firmly planted in her neck and looking like he’s just woken up. He probably has, honestly. Chowder and Nursey seemed to have disappeared from the scene.

“Morning to you too, Bits.” Ransom chuckles. He walks over and gives Bitty a kiss, even though Bitty is still doing quite a bit of pouting. His hands reach for the spatula and frying pan, resting gently over Bitty’s own. Jackie knew what the gesture meant and mentally scolded themself for not asking how long Bitty had been cooking.

“Mind if I take over?”

Bitty looks like he wants to say no, but agrees anyway. He goes over to sit next to Lardo, who takes his hands and starts working their thumbs over his wrists. Holster leans against the counter, March pressed firmly into their side, and April reaches into the fridge.

Kenny pats his lap and Jackie goes over to sit in it. Breakfast is a subdued routine with little variation. Conversation topics are pretty much everywhere, depending on who brings up what. Lardo makes an offhand comment about the hockey team, and Jackie defends it like they usually does. Bitty mentions his thesis and Ransom gives him solid advice for when he can’t focus. March and April have to leave for practice, but promise to be back for dinner if they’re welcome (they are, they always are).

It’s  _ mundane _ and that’s what Jackie loves the most about it.

~_/*\\_~

Nursey reappears to sit with Jackie and Kenny and go over the photos they took. The couch is the easiest place to settle down and look through them and Nursey doesn’t mind squishing in against Jackie’s side to gaze down at the camera. Kenny is on Jackie’s other side and has his laptop open and ready to download any of the photos Jackie wants to keep, and send any of the photos Nursey likes to their shared cloud.

“C was telling me you guys got some swawesome pics over the Pond and I could use something inspiring for my next short story,” Nursey tells them, an arm slung over Jackie’s shoulders.

Chowder  _ was _ at the pond with them when they took those photos. They had run into him while he was with Farmer and the two had been enthusiastic about posing for Jackie when they asked about getting a few photos of the two together.

“I dunno, I wouldn’t say they were that great,” Jackie admits, feeling the tiniest bit self conscious. Most tell them that they take  _ great _ photos, and they’re inclined to believe it because they have an eye for detail these days. But there’s always that tiny bit of embarrassment that comes with showing anyone.

Nursey looks up at Kenny over Jackie’s head and the two share a look. Kenny knows Nursey encourages Jackie wherever the encouragement is needed, so he doesn’t have any worry that Nursey will know how to make Jackie feel confident in their work.

Nursey plants a soft kiss against Jackie’s cheek and then presses the button on the camera, going through four or five photos before stopping on one that has Chowder and Farmer with their backs turned, the camera focused on the pond.

“This one’s really good. The focus on the lake makes them feel more subtle, and the photo more intimate, I think,” Nursey says. Jackie smiles, soft and nearly unnoticeable, and Kenny goes through the motions to upload the photo. He leans back against the couch as he does so, and feels Nursey’s hand in his hair. It’s just as much a reassurance for him as Nursey’s words had been for Jackie.

It feels nice.

“We were gonna go by the Pond again today, actually,” Kenny points out. Jackie perks up a bit at the reminder and Nursey looks mildly interested.

“Yeah?”

“It’s a good time to get some of the first photos of fall without it being freezing,” Jackie supplies.

Nursey looks pensive, as if maybe wanting to join them on their trip out. Jackie wouldn’t mind; they haven’t gone out with Nursey in quite a while and wanted Nursey’s input on their choices of angles and light sources. It’s always nice to have someone else with a decent amount of photography experience joining them.

“I’ll pass. I already promised Lards I’d help them with their current sculpture project.” Nursey’s tone is apologetic, but Jackie just smiles and Kenny shrugs.

“Cool, we’ll just upload any dece ones we take while we’re there,” Kenny says. Nursey smiles in appreciation, before looking back down at Jackie’s camera and cycling through more of the photos.

~_/*\\_~

The air hasn’t changed enough for either of them to need more than light jackets. Kenny disappears upstairs to grab Jackie’s and his own while Jackie stops off in the kitchen to let someone know where the two of them will be. The only ones sitting at the table are Shitty (whos papers are spread out all around her, and her shoulders are tense, Jackie can tell) and Dex (who keeps telling Shitty that she can take a break if she needs it). Holster stands at the counter, their phone in hand.

“Me and Kenny are going out,” Jackie says.

“What’s new?” Holster snorts, before glancing up and seeing the thoroughly unamused expression Jackie pulls at them. They crack a wide smile and Jackie can’t barely hide their own when they do. Holster’s good mood could be infectious when they were in it.

“If anybody asks we’ll let tell them you’re out,” Dex offers up, glancing pointedly over at Holster. Holster shrugs a bit.

“I never said I  _ wouldn’t _ tell anyone,” they claim as defense.

Shitty reaches a hand up and Jackie comes over to wrap an arm around her in a gentle hug. They get a glance at their papers and only spies a few words (words like “assault” and “intent” and “child”) before deciding they really, really shouldn’t be looking. Dex passes them a kiss.

“Could you two bring some coffee back? I feel like Shan’s gonna need it,” he asks. Shitty tosses him an accusatory glare, knowing that Dex only uses her actual name when he wants her to take a break, but goes back to her work.

“I could be  _ done _ with this old ass fucking case if the fucking police were competent enough to make sure they had  _ all _ of the fucking evidence—” she makes a frustrated noise and Dex sighs.

“Don’t work too hard, Shits, you deserve a break too.” Jackie’s words are meant to be comforting, and from the way Shitty tosses them an appreciative smile, they think it helped.

“Where are you two headed?” Holster asks, when Kenny appears in the doorway to the kitchen, a spare jacket in hand. Jackie walks over and takes it, putting it on.

“Just to the Pond. We’ll be back later,” Kenny supplied. He made his own round of affection and then headed towards the door. He grabbed Jackie’s hand, entertwined their fingers, and made sure his backpack was situated right on his back.

“Bye!” Jackie managed to call before they were out the door.

~_/*\\_~

Kenny’s hands are always warm and a little wet, like he’s just washed them. Kenny doesn’t know it, but he smells like Jackie’s favourite winters back home, year round. If Jackie could bottle it, they would, because it’s the most comforting thing in the world to them.

They think about that, while leaning against Kenny’s shoulder at the Pond. The smell is overwhelming nearly, and Jackie feels drunk on it, their smile soft and real and their eyes droopy.

Kenny’s grading an essay on his laptop, mumbling now and then about his professor’s students. Most of them are freshman, learning to deconstruct the gender roles they’ve recently learned and figure out what it means to them. They’re young and impressionable still, which Kenny is grateful for, because he can tell that he’s the first trans person they’ve encountered whose name they can recognize.

“One girl, she’s really adorable, short hair and the prettiest dress, said she was glad to have met me,” Kenny told Jackie after the first class. He was the TA for the Gender Studies class, a model student, and an accomplished athlete. The other students loved him already. “I never thought about it, but I kind of like being a role model. Makes me feel good and shit.”

Jackie had smiled, kissed his cheek, and told him that he was a good one to have.

Now, Kenny shoots through the essays he’s grading, trying to be more uplifting than shooting the students’ thoughts and ideas down, know that they’re still learning and he can’t expect them all to be perfect.

“I don’t want them to think they’re bad people just because they grew up with this ingrained homo or transphobia. They’re still learning and they’re not bad people for not knowing,” Kenny had said, when Jack first saw him get frustrated with an assignment a few weeks back, “The defining moment is whether or not they choose to  _ keep _ being homo or transphobic.”

Jackie knew Kenny wanted to be a professor one day, and they saw someone willing to do anything to help his students become better people when he watched Kenny grade papers. He was always kind if he could be, and if he couldn’t be? Well.

“So what did Alicia say about homecoming,” Kenny asks suddenly, curious.

“She said she’s planning on coming, but she’ll have to cancel a shoot,” Jackie admits, their eyes closed. Kenny shifts to plant a kiss on top of their head, leaning on Jackie after doing so.

“What about Bob?”

Jackie scrunches their nose up a bit. They definitely want Bob to come to homecoming with their mom, but recently he’d been a bit… distant. Since Jackie came out to him, he’d been as understanding as he could and picked up as many books and articles on having a trans child that he could find. Jackie thought he was fine, but they didn’t know why Bob was suddenly pulling away, and Alicia was being cryptic.

“I don’t know. I wanna see him but…” they sighed, shrugging a little. “Maybe he’ll come.”

“Fingers crossed, babe.”

And they lapsed back into comfortable silence. Jackie was drifting off towards sleep again but then they fault Kenny shift and they went to pick their head up from his shoulder.

“No, babe—“ Kenny reaches down just to adjust their entwined hands. Jackie belatedly thinks Kenny’s pretty talented to be grading with one hand. “There we go.”

“I wanna take some photos,” Jackie mumbles. Kenny nods.

“I’ll wake you up in twenty. Take a nap.”

Kenny squeezes their hand and Jackie smiles. They think they will take a nap. They prefer the lighting around two pm anyway, when the sun isn’t directly overhead. Kenny’s promise to wake them will probably wind up broken, though; Kenny will probably let them sleep an hour before he wakes them. Jackie feels a little spoiled when they remember that.

Later, after they’ve taken enough photos of the geese juxtaposed with Pond, and enough photos of Kenny smiling and looking the happiest he’s been in forever, and after Kenny gets a photo of Jackie looking truly content, they head back to the Haus, where the rest of their family is waiting for them.

It’s a good day, Jackie thinks. Maybe it was always meant to be.

**Author's Note:**

> I was hinting at something with Bob, kudos to anyone who can guess what ;)
> 
> I’ve been working on a separate Trans PolyHaus fic for a while now, but this one managed to get posted first (since it was for PolyaEpifest). 20gayteen really pulling through here.


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